Insta Review: American Street, by Ibi Zoboi

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Stunning cover with a novel inside to match. When Fabiola and her mother step off of their flight from Haiti onto US ground, she expects magic and light. Instead, her mother is immediately torn from her side and detained by ICE agents as she is sent alone to her final destination: Detroit, Michigan. Here, she finds her three cousins and her aunt, who have become American in all of the best and worst ways, and a life full of surprising highs and lows. Fabiola struggles to find her way in a culture so different than her own with her moral compass detained 500 miles away, not available by phone or visit. Her first American boyfriend makes it even harder to figure out good vs bad and right vs wrong. There is no candy-coating here: living in Detroit is hard, being a refugee is even harder, and Fabiola has unknowingly landed in the middle of an impossible situation. Get ready to fall in love and cry some serious tears over this beautiful novel by Ibi Zoboi. Drugs, sex, violence, domestic abuse, and other plot points mean American Street is very YA, but it will still be relevant, rich, and worthwhile whenever your reader is ready for it. I was thrilled to see it on the long-list for the 2017 National Book Award. Much-deserved recognition for a thoughtful, piercing story about what refugees find (and leave behind) when they arrive for their “American dream”.

A post shared by Ms. Fitz (she/her) (@fitzbetweentheshelves) on Sep 16, 2017 at 12:19pm PDT